Explosive



Patented Aug. 20, 1935 UNITED STATES EXPLOSIVE George C. Hale, Dover, N.J.

No, Drawing. Application March 15, 1934, Serial Claims.

(Granted under the act of amended April 30, 1928;

The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or forthe Government for governmental purposes, without the payment to me ofany royalty thereon.

5 The subject of this invention is an explosive.

This invention relates to an explosive -compo sition in whichethylenedinitramine is an essential constituent. I have discovered thatethylenedinitramine is an explosive and that it possesses some unusualproperties which render it of special interest for various purposes.Outstanding among these properties is its high degree of resistance todetonation by impact or shock as compared to other explosives havingequivalent brisance or explosive strength. It is generally recognizedthat high explosives which have an especially high degree of brisance orshattering effect are commonly more susceptible to detonation by impactor shock than other high explosives having appreciably lower brisance.Thus nitroglycerine, pentaerythritetranitrate, trimethylenetrinitramine,tetranitroaniline and tetryl which are, among the most brisant highexplosives which have found military or commercial use are all fairlysensitive to impact or shock. In fact they are so sensitive in thisrespect that they have not been used as bursting charges for shell orbombs but only considered for use in the form of small charges asboosters or initiators for the main bomb or shell charges. In the formof these small charges they are-not subjected to as rough usage as arethe explosives which are handled in large quantity and used as-shell orbomb fillers.

I have found that ethylenedinitramine has brisance or strengthcomparable to the explosives above mentioned but possesses greaterresistance to detonation by shock than any of the explosives mentioned.Actually it corresponds in resistance to shock more nearly to the classof relative insensitive explosives such as picric acid, TNT, etc., whichhave been used as bursting charges. In the standard droptestit requireda 10 inch height of fall of-a 2 kg. weight to cause detonation, thisbeing exactly the same height of fall as was required for picric acid,but the dinitramine showed under test appreciably higher brisance orstrength than either picric acid or TNT.

Another important characteristic of ethylenedinitramine is itsrelatively low ignition temperature. It explodes spontaneously whenheated to a temperature of 180 closely to mercury fulmate andnitroglycerine in the ease with which it is detonated by heat. No

C. thus corresponding March 3, 1883, as 370 0. G. 757) other explosiveis known to me which has such high resistance to detonation by shock orimpact and at the same time is so readily exploded by heat. Picric acidand TNT which, as mentioned above are comparable to the dinitramine inre- 5 sistance to shock, do not explode spontaneously under heat untiltemperature of approximately 325 C. and 438 C. respectively are reached.Thus the ethylenedinitramine is an explosive which will withstand theshocks incident to transportation, handling, loading, etc., and yet willexplode more readily under the action of initiators or detonators thanthe high explosives commonly used as bursting charges.

Ethylenedinitramine has been found to be substantially insoluble inwater only 0.5 gram dissolving in grams of water at 25 C. It has a highdegree of stability, withstanding the standard C. Vacuum Stability Testas well as tetryl which has sufiicient stability that it has been widelyused in both military and commercial detonators. I have found also thatethylenedinitramine is highly resistant to absorption of moisture fromthe air as indicated by the fact that when exposed to an atmosphere of90% relative humidity at a temperature of 30 C. only, 0.01% moisture wastaken up by the explosive.

The above highly favorable explosive properties, together with the factthat the raw material, ethylenediamlne, from which theethylenedinitramine may be derived, is now available commercially, makespossible the utilization of this explosive for various purposes. It maybe used to replace tetryl in detonators and boosters or to replacepicric acid or TNT in high explosive shell or bombs, etc.; its relativeinsensitivity to shock, ease of ignition by flame and great explosivestrength makes it a favorable substitute for nitroglycerine ornitrocellulose in propellent powders. The unusual combination of theproperties of both initiating or detonating agents and -the moreinsensitive high explosives makes its field of application especiallybroad.

Ethylenedinitramine is represented chemically by the formula: 45

CH2. N'H. N01

CH2. NH. N02

It is not to be confused with the compound ethylenediaminedinitratewhich may be represented chemically by the formula:

As indicated bythe above for ethylenedinitramine this explosive does notcontain suflicient oxygen for complete combustion of the carbon andhydrogen in the compound. It therefore lends itself to admixture withrelatively cheap oxidizing agents to provide explosives of variouscharacteristics. Thus mixtures of the dinitramine with ammoniumperchlorate or potassium chlorate or other active oxidizing agentsprovide a'series of explosives which possess high brisance and evolve amuch greater amount 01 heat and 3,011,678 greater quantity of gas thanthe dinitramine itself. 7

I claim:

1. A new explosive embodying ethylenedinitramine.

2. An explosive composition including ethylenedinitramine and anoxidizing agent.

3. An explosive composition having ethylenedinitramine as an essentialconstituent.

. 4. An explosive composition comprlsing -ethyl-' enedinitramine andammonium perchlorate.

5. An explosive composition comprising ethyl enedinitramine andpotassium chlorate.

GEORGE c.

